National Japanese American Historical Society

San Francisco-based organization "dedicated to the collection, preservation, authentic interpretation, and sharing of historical information of the Japanese American experience for the diverse broader national and global community." In addition to operating a site based museum on a historic site, the National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS) has also produced a wide range of traveling exhibitions on various aspects of Japanese American history, many of them tied to the World War II experience.

The National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS), was founded in 1980 (and incorporated in 1981), as "Go For Broke, Inc.", whose purpose was to promote the history and accomplishments of Japanese American veterans of the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service. In 1986, the organization changed its name to reflect its shift to a broader subject focus that encompassed all of Japanese American history, becoming the National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS), its acronym pronounced as in "ninjas."

In its early years, NJAHS operated out of a San Francisco office at the Mission Center on Fulton Street which is now part of the UCSF campus. They moved to San Francisco J-Town Peace Plaza (222 Peace Plaza), then to their present location on Buchanan Street. Of some interest, during the 1940s, this address was a jazz club, Bop City. Rosalyn Tonai has been executive director of NJAHS since 1990.

NJAHS has also produced curricular materials on the incarceration as part of its education program and has published books tied to its research and exhibitions including ground breaking volumes of Japanese American Women (Mei Nakano's Japanese American Women: Three Generations, 1890-1990, 1990) and music (George Yoshida's Reminiscing in Swingtime: Japanese Americans in American Popular Music: 1925-1960, 1997). It's Nikkei Heritage newsletter also included original research on various Japanese American related topics.

NJAHS established a research center for the 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service Oral History Project which is located at the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Historic Learning Center that opened on Veterans' Day in 2013. The MIS Building is part of the Presidio Trust. It offers a permanent exhibition includes a re-created classroom and a mission map room that illustrates the historic achievements of the MIS. The center is located on the Presidio, at Crissy Field at the actual historic site (Building #640) where, on the eve of war with Japan in 1941, the U.S. Army secretly trained Japanese American linguist soldiers.

This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior.